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USGS makes more satellite pics available

By William Jackson

Jul 02, 2004

The Geological Survey has awarded the third contract in a $15 million program to make commercial satellite imagery widely available to government users.

The contracts make data licenses, ranging from single organizations to public-domain distribution rights, available with what the agency called aggressive pricing. Each contract has one base year with two, one-year options. The latest contract went to DigitalGlobe Inc. of Longmont, Colo. USGS and its partners will get access to DigitalGlobe's archives containing images of more than 1 million square kilometers. Resolution ranges from 0.6 meters to 2.44 meters. Contracts were awarded in September to Space Imaging Inc. of Thornton, Colo., and Orbimage Inc. of Dulles, Va. Images from Space Imaging and Orbimage have resolution up to 1 meter.

The contracts are available to other federal and state and local agencies through partnership agreements with USGS, said Tim Saultz, program officer in the USGS Commercial Partnerships Team. Images are used in a variety of programs from mapping to disaster mitigation and environmental monitoring.

About the Author

William Jackson is freelance writer and the author of the CyberEye blog.